Monday, November 9, 2015

I’ve had a really decent run of bike traveling experience of
late. 2 weekends ago I jumped on a plane and went up to Sydney for the weekend
to hang out with family. Of course, being prime race season, I took my bike and
hooked up with Anthony Shippard and Guy Frail to do both the Coluzzi bunches
offered on Saturday and Sunday. One good thing about traveling with the bike is
that there is always a bunch ride on in any city that you visit. I also got the
opportunity to ride across the Sydney Harbour Bridge on the road…”meet us on
the city side of the bridge” Ships said…so I rode in that general direction.
The flash of the e-Tag being the main indicator that I probably should not have
been on the road! But, I did manage to get the fastest Strava segment across there for the day ;)

The following weekend it was back aboard the metal bird to Brisvegas
for the Bayview Blast XCM. This was such a great event and I am really glad
that I went to it. It was way more humid than Bangkok ever was and it was also
hot. Damn hot. But, that is one the things that attracts me to bike racing. You
are constantly testing yourself against the track, the elements, the weather as
well as the other competitors….it’s never the same and that is the beauty of
it. Highlights of that trip include catching up with family, hanging out with
friends and eating a huge amount of Thai and Japanese food. The bike racing
thing went pretty well also. With a few issues had on the day, I still managed
to get through and post a 4th place position and claim 4th
in the National XCM Series.

I thoroughly enjoyed the Bayview Blast trails - epic all day singletrack

So, getting to the point of the post, the Highland Fling is
the last round of the Maverick XCM Series – which is a best 3 of 4 rounds
series. This started way back in March with the Capital Punishment in Canberra (4th
place) and took me to The Giant Odyssey in Forrest, Victoria (10th
place) and the Flight Centre Epic in Queensland (4th place). Again,
one of the best things about the bike racing is enjoying the entire journey
that it takes you on. When you think about it, the actual racing is less than 5
hours over the course of a few days over a weekend. It is therefore, imperative
to try and enjoy everything else that is going on in the town that you are in
or are traveling through.

On Friday I was fortunate to be interviewed by Caitlyn from Win News about the showdown expected at the Highland Fling

I’ve done the Fling 5 times now with a myriad of results along
the lines of 7th, 8th, 9th 11th – it
is hard. Does it suit me? I don’t know for sure. I always feel like I struggle
here. The pace is intensely fast. The hills endless, the singletrack requires
immense focus, it is either boiling hot, or cold and wet. But with a bit of
experience in how the Fling is raced I know a few things….the start is fast. It
doesn’t matter who turns up but the first hour is mental. You need lots of food
on the bike to restock what energy you do use to propel the bike forward. And
you need to know a few landmarks around the traps.

MC Chops (James Lamb) asked a few tough questions about the Maverick Series Algorithm just before the start. I had the answers...

The morning started off being pretty cold. This is great for
marathon racing. You can push as hard as you want as you are not going to
overheat. When racing was underway, the start was mellow, until the 2nd
corner when someone ramped it and strung it all out. Then it went back to
mellow. Then it went full on for a bit….this pretty much continued for about 30
minutes! And no doubt kept going like that all the way to the first transition.
I pulled the parachute out after about 30 minutes and rode with Matt Rizutto
until the end of the 1st stage before the neutral section. Anthony
Shippard, Kyle Ward, Dylan Cooper and
Andy Blair were driving it full gas. There were some definite team tactics in
play as well as some not so obvious ones that may have been only known about
through Facebook Messenger! LOL ;)

Matt and I were rolling up past a paddock of cows that were
a little agitated by all of the people in activewear riding past them on
bicycles. Like most crowds there is always one….and that cow smashed through
the barb wired fence as Matt and I came to a screeching halt as another 30
followed suit. Then the rest of the herd ran up the fence for 30 metres and
proceeded to break through another part of the fence to roam free with their
bovine friends. This afforded Matt and I a slight recovery session of about 45
seconds. We had a good laugh and kept pressing on.

The Highland Fling has 2 untimed sections 30 and 80km
approximately - give or take. 5 minutes to cross the train tracks --- if you
need more details check their website! I won’t go into too much detail.

At this stage I was probably 40km in to the race. I had no
idea where anyone was as they were either up the road or behind me. All I can
keep doing is moving forward. The first contact I got was from Cam Ivory who
had suffered a flat tyre about 10km in. He was on a mission to get back up the
front and motored past me. At the 50km mark I rode past Tristan Ward who was in
a dark place, lights totally out, creeping. I yelled a full on redneck
YIEEEEEEW for his appreciation as I went past. At 65km I saw Ed Bissaker’s colours and it
took 5 km to get onto his wheel but it came at a very fortuitous location – at the
70km section which is the long open section of farm road into Wingello. This is
where we found Seb Jayne, XC whippet creeping along. I gave him a cheery hello….I
may have actually yelled out “What’s up dawg” in my best Xibit impersonation as
we motored past him! Sorrynotsorry Seb! But you did get 10km extra from where I
caught you last year! Thank God I don’t race XC against you!

Anthony Shippard and I doing the standard #bluesteel prior to the start

We hauled ass along and just before we turned into the final
transition timing section we saw Cam Ivory. The good thing about the transition
is that you can get more food and drink and then regroup. We were fortunate to
get a group of 4 together, Cam, Ed, myself and a Sydney XC team dude. We
motored along the wide rolling turns with the flick of an elbow to keep each
other company and keep the pace high progressing through this last section.

This last section is pretty full on. For starters it is 30km….and
that is with 80km of some pretty hard racing in your legs. It has a real
mixture of terrain. Fast fireroad sections, long slogs up hill, techy
singletrack and this year….mud so thick it would make a euro cyclocrosser lick
their lips in anticipation.

At about the 85km mark, Cam did a turn on the front that
broke Ed and he had to pull the ripcord and back it off. Cam was starting to
pay for the post flat tyre fix chase on and about 2 minutes later backed it
off. I asked if he was ok, and he replied that there was not enough training in
the legs. After winning the Bundanoon Dash the day before, and chasing back on
for 70km, I think that he was probably just cooked a little. I rode off in
search of the last sections and anyone else I could find.

Getting through to the last bit of the singletrack around
the base of the Brokeback Mountain region was a significant milestone. You are
about 10km from home here…but it seems to take forever. But you know the
landmarks, and you keep ticking them off as you get through them. I jumped on
Ben May’s wheel through the fast straight line singletrack prior to the huge
creek crossing before the hill which featured a choirgirl set at the top!

The next bit of singletrack is quite technical and takes a
lot of focus to ride through when you have 95km of racing in you. So you
actually have to concentrate pretty hard through here! I spied Anthony Shippard
off in the distance and it took a while to catch him. When I went past him I
asked him if the tactics had worked out for Ward Bro ™ #1. He said that he
hoped so. As I rounded it in past the farm, I had a kilometre to go and found
Kyle creeping. A mechanical had thwarted his hopes of victory and we had a good
discussion about it all as we rolled the last 900 metres crossing the line
after a pretty tough day out on the trails.

That feeling you have when you have crossed the line and are glad that you have your bike to hold you up!

With the Fling, you don’t really know where you really ended
up. I crossed the line in 6th place, but the retrospective
calculations taking into account the untimed sections need to be sorted. After
a 30 minute wait I did find out that I had crossed for 6th place.
Now there was also the small fact of the Maverick Series placings as well. The
math had been done in the last week with the myriad of possible scenarios that
could have played out. The series gives points based on placing and time based
off of the 1st rider home. So, I used caution and calculated conservatively
where the placings would end up. With the placings on the day, I ended up 3rd
in that series with a 4th, 4th and a 6th
giving me the consistent points for the series overall.

Results always tell a story in themselves

Ok now some stats:

Distance – not 100% sure. There is some variation in how the
GPS calculations are done on everyone’s hardware, but we’ll go with 105-110km

Time: 4:49:03

Climbing: 2000m

Average Heart rate: 166bpm

Maximum Heart Rate: 182bpm

Pro4mance Gels: 12

Sukkie Electrolyte: 5 litres

Tyres: rear – Rubena\Mitas Scylla with Textra sidewall. I
went with this one and I am glad that I did. It allowed me to ride a bit ‘looser’
at the end when I was fatigued knowing that the sidewall was

bulletproof against the rocks. I had a Zefyros on the front
as I like the ‘turn in’ it gives the bike as well as the straight line speed
and lightness .

The best thing about the Highland Fling is the atmosphere.
You could also tell that more than a few people were a little more chilled
after this race. The fact that it is the annual XCM season closer means that
people could afford to simply chill out and enjoy the atmosphere in the event
village, talk some crap about the day’s events, and soak in the sun that popped
out for about 5 minutes!

So what is next? Not sure…I’m just going to keep on enjoying
riding my bike!

It's all about the bike...good to see the backend of the season done and dusted!

About Me

Bikes - that pretty much sums it up. I have been racing mountain bikes since 1989. This was back when you had one bike for all disciplines, XC, uphill, downhill and trials. As a junior I was ranked 5th and 3rd in Australia for XC and DH respectively. Back then there was no Under 23 class, and it was straight into the Elite class, where I managed to finish the first year ranked 10th in the country. During and after finishing my study I raced downhill as this required less fitness to do. I also played ice hockey in this time. After a good stint at downhill I raced A-Pro BMX for about 4 years. Following a while of playing golf and getting fat and unfit, I dusted off the mountain bike, lost 20kgs and got some fitness back on.